Increased CAFE
Standards
Could Slow Global Warming
By Jennifer Hickman
"Raising CAFE standards is the single biggest step we can
take to curb global warming." That is the phrase we all had permanently
engrained into our heads the weekend of May 5th — 7th at a Sierra Club
Global Warming Training Event in Washington, D.C. We were given an
overwhelming amount of information, while at the same time I felt more
motivated than ever before to work towards preventing all the irreversible
disasters that will result from the warming of our planet.
Gas prices are on the rise all across the country, and we
need to get more people talking about CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel
Economy). While the media and consumers, especially in the Midwest, are
screaming about gas prices - we have a great opportunity to turn the
public eye on getting cleaner cars. Driving clean cars that use less gas
won’t only save us money, but will also slash our dependence on foreign
oil, and protect the planet that we will leave our kids from further
global warming. With increased energy security, and less global warming,
we’ll all be able to breathe easier.
In 1975, Congress passed the CAFE law to conserve oil and
improve the nation’s gas mileage. It is the most successful energy-saving
law ever passed, saving three million barrels of oil each day by doubling
car fuel economy. Despite numerous technological advances in the auto
industry, the recent boom in SUVs, and other light trucks, has eroded fuel
economy to its lowest level since 1980.
Right now, the automakers have the technology to make cars
that burn less gas. These cleaner cars could save us as much as 55,000 at
the gas pump over the lifetime of a car or light truck. But the automakers
have been using their political clout for years to block any attempts to
even study the need to raise miles per gallon standards. The Senate,
however, has begun to loosen the automakers strangle hold on miles per
gallon standards. New legislation authorizes the government to studs’ how
to make cars and SUVs go further on a gallon of gas. This is our chance to
make sure that we take the biggest single step to curbing global warming
and saving oil!
A recent U.S. Senate decision jumpstarts the process of
increasing fuel economy for cars and light trucks in the United States.
With Americans feeling the pinch of high gas prices, fuel economy at its
lowest level since 1980 and rising pollution, the Senate mandated that the
U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Academy of Sciences
study and recommend stronger CAFE standards. This agreement, when
finalized by both the House and the Senate in the final funding bill,
would remove part of the rider that for the last five years has barred the
agency from even studying the possibility of raising miles-per-gallon
standards. The Senate reached this agreement when it became apparent that
the Gorton/Bryan/Feinstein effort to strike the anti-CAFE rider had
achieved widespread support among Senators.
The mandated study is au unexpected ic ton but the fight is
not over. In recent months Senators heard from thousands of constituents
who supported raising CAFE standards to save money, cut pollution and end
dependence on foreign oil. We now all the support we can get from our
Minnesota Representatives. Please contact your Rep and let him/her know
you support raising CAFE standards. They need to hear from their
constituents!
If you are interested in working on our global warming
campaign, please come to the next International Committee
meeting. The meetings are the second Wednesday of the month from 7 pm
to 9 p.m. in room 101 at the U Tech Center.
Contact Brett Smith at brett.smith@sfsierra.sierraclub.org
for more details. If you aren’t able to make it to a meeting, please feel
free to contact me at jenannh@hotmail.com for more
information on the campaign.
Page Last Update July 09, 2001 .
